Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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Does it Pay to Do Good? An Assessment of the Impact of ESG, MPI, And Board Tenure on ROI
No full textOvercoming Barriers to the Creation of Sustainable Procurement Value in the Textiles Industry
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Adoption of innovation in a restaurant context: Factors shaping restaurants' willingness to adopt plant-based meat alternatives
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Europe, Let's Come Together!; The Eurovision Song Contest and the European Colonial Legacy
No full textThis thesis analyses the impact of the European colonial legacy within the Eurovision Song Contest, and how this provides a wider picture for how the legacy impacts upon European culture and ideology. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union, the Eurovision Song Contest provides a platform of pop-culture and cultural exchange, and since its creation in the 1950s has expanded its broadcasting reach and the number of participating countries. As the amount of participating countries has expanded, Eurovision has maintained its status as non-political and celebrating diversity, music and culture.
Using evidence from interviews with participants, statements from European institutions and governments and analysis of performances, this thesis addresses how Europe's colonial legacy has become present within cultural mega events. Focusing on the Irish language, the experiences of Indigenous Australians and participants from former colonies as examples, it investigates how the relationship between colonialism and culture has emerged within the song contest. Analysis on ideology features Turkey and The Balkans, and how the colonial legacy impacts on the relationship between these countries and the European institutions. Within this chapter it will investigate the Turkish and Balkan concerns regarding othering and exclusion, and how the colonial legacy impacts upon these relations. Examining both of these avenues, and using these examples, evidence is provided that former colonial powers still benefit from colonialism in how they are able to legislate ideology and control culture and cultural expressions
Readers or Consumers? Identity Portrayal in Italian Lifestyle Magazines
No full textLifestyle journalism is a form of media operating at the intersection of identity and consumerism, a place where multiple identity-related factors come into play. Magazines, one of the first instances of lifestyle media, have historically been able to shape culture through their recommendations, gaining a relevant spot in the media universe. Within the Italian lifestyle media landscape, Cosmopolitan is the only magazine which caters to young women aged 18-34, representing an interesting case study when it comes to analyzing how current portrayal of consumerism and national identity are represented in the magazine. Despite research has analyzed how American lifestyle magazines have shaped consumer identity in the past and the influence of branded advertising on Italian editorial content, little has been said about how Italian lifestyle readers are addressed within articles containing product recommendations, and how such articles represent and possibly shape culture.
This research aims to explore the role of recommendation articles in mediating between cultural traditions and global consumerist trends. To achieve the goals described above, the research question investigates how Cosmopolitan's recommendation articles construct their readers' identity, especially focusing on the role played by consumerism and Italian identity. The study is developed as a qualitative analysis, interpreting results using MCDA (Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis) on 20 selected recommendation articles about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, analyzing the magazine's printed edition from March 2024 to April 2025. Latent and implicit ideological meanings and structures are uncovered by analyzing the interplay of text and images in the articles. The articles were selected by using purposive sampling, as they needed to include specific product recommendations and have a length of at least 300 words. This research focuses on how consumerism and Italian identity are portrayed within Cosmopolitan's recommendation articles. The main findings show that consumerism is portrayed as a solution, identity-shaping, driven by social media, and finally as a normative practice; Italian culture is portrayed as an aesthetic, outdated, and in relation to the international environment. Ultimately, the magazine constructs a reader identity which is aligned with global consumer trends while selectively incorporating Italian cultural themes and references. The recommendation articles construct the readers' identity by blending consumerist references with relevant cultural phenomena, especially social media trends. Overall, Italian culture is commodified and selectively used, while consumerism emerges as a normalized and empowering behavior. The study contributes to understanding lifestyle journalism as a vehicle for cultural negotiation and identity construction in contemporary Italian media
Rhetorical Storytelling in Climate Change Denial Videos on YouTube
No full textIn recent years, YouTube became an important platform in shaping the public understanding of
climate change. While previous research has addressed misinformation and public opinion, there has
been a gap on how climate-sceptical creators on YouTube use rhetorical tools within audiovisual
storytelling. This study investigates how persuasive strategies are applied in climate change-sceptical
content on YouTube, for which a rhetorical analysis is applied.
To examine this, a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis was conducted, deriving from
the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos. Additionally, an inductive category focusing on
viewer engagement was developed. The analysis is based on 36 videos from four YouTube channels:
Steven Crowder, John Stossel, PragerU and Heartland Institute. These were selected through
purposive sampling and were analysed using a hybrid deductive-inductive coding approach in Atlas.ti.
Hereby, all multimodal modes were considered.
The findings show that ethos was the most frequently used appeal. Creators establish
credibility through critical tone, the use of professional visuals and scepticism towards media and
institutions. Hereby, the type of credibility differs depending on the content style. While
conversation-style creators appeal to the audience through shared values such as economic concern
and national identity, solo style creators tend to use structured visuals and formal delivery to create
authority. This demonstrates how credibility is strategically adapted to different audiences and
formats.
Within the category of pathos, humour and satire were found to be dominant tools,
particularly within Steven Crowder's content. Editing techniques such as reaction cuts and dramatic
effects were used to amplify the emotional appeal and increase the entertainment value of the
message. The analysis of logos showed that rational argumentation was often simulated rather than
applied in a scientific way. Instead of offering robust evidence, creators frequently relied on
simplified data, inserted news clips or visual props to appear rational. The rhetoric of critical thinking
was frequently used to question climate policies or expert consensus, not to foster understanding
but to create doubt.
A final finding is the use of viewer engagement as a rhetorical technique. Statements like "do
your own research" or requests for support are used to activate the viewer and increase loyalty. This
reflects a shift from persuasion as argument to persuasion as participation. Altogether, these findings
add significant research insights on how climate-sceptical creators use rhetorical storytelling to make
their narratives persuasive. Rather than denying climate change outright, the content analysed in this
study uses precisely chosen logic, tailored credibility and emotional resonance to challenge
mainstream narratives and maintaining public doubt
More Than Human
No full textAs artificial intelligence (AI) influencers become more popular across social media channels, their potential for building consumer trust continues to be an unclear and challenging topic. Although AI influencers offer consistency, scalability, and new types of digital connections, their fabricated origin generates societal and ethical issues, and cognitive difficulties amongst consumers. This thesis looks at the psychological and cognitive factors which affect consumer trust in AI influencers, focusing on the contextual predictors of interactivity anthropomorphism, parasocial relationships (PSR), and AI literacy. Cultural environments is further explored as a significant moderating factor. This research, based on theories such as Parasocial Interaction Theory, the CASA paradigm, and Media Equation Theory, addresses the main research question: How do perceptions of and perceived relationships with AI influencers influence consumer trust? To answer this, a quantitative online survey was carried out with Qualtrics, focusing on adults that had engaged with influencers on social media platforms. The overall sample (N = 162) included respondents from 34 various nationalities. Respondents were shown images of AI influencers within lifestyle and fashion situations, and they answered pre-existing Likert-scale questions about interactivity, anthropomorphism, parasocial relationships, AI literacy, cultural environments, and consumer trust. Analysis of the data using IBM SPSS Statistics 29 provided several interesting and significant results. Firstly, PSR appeared as the most significant predictor of trust, emphasizing the emotional and psychological aspect of trust development with AI influencers. Additionally, AI literacy was shown to be positively correlated to trust, revealing that knowledgeable individuals are more assured and carefully aware in their evaluations. Surprisingly, perceived interactivity and anthropomorphism did not significantly predict trust, diminishing the idea that realism or reactivity solely can create trustworthiness. Lastly, the cultural environments had a strong and significant moderating effect on PSR and trust relationship, implying that cultural norms like individualism vs collectivism affect trust in AI influencers. These results have significant implications for marketers, AI developers, and educators. Businesses must focus more on presenting emotionally appealing storylines instead of artificial realism, as well as provide useful information that helps users grasp AI systems. Moreover, this study demonstrates that in an effort to foster genuine consumer trust, AI influencers need to culturally adapt to local consumers rather than being generic to worldwide consumers. As AI blurs the distinction between human and machine, these findings lead to a more ethical, efficient, and inclusive use of AI in digital marketing